The present invention relates generally to computer data input equipment. More particularly, the invention relates to a computer pointing device or mouse having integral microphone system for speech recognition processing.
Most personal computers today include a pointing device, such as a hand-manipulated mouse for controlling the screen cursor in making menu selections, data entry selections, performing graphic manipulations, blocking off regions of text in a document and the like. Often the mouse is used in conjunction with a data entry keyboard, which is used to enter alphanumeric text and to make program selections by pressing functions keys.
A newer form of data input and computer control is voice activation using speech recognition technology. Although still largely experimental today, it is expected that speech recognition technology will become increasingly important as a means of entering data and instructions into a computer. One principal problem with speech recognition technology today is that the speech recognition technology is highly dependent upon speaker dependent variables and acoustics. While great strides are continuing to be made, speech recognition technology requires complex signal processing techniques which are designed to standardize the input speech as much as possible, thereby making the speech recognizer's job easier. In short, it is desirable to eliminate as many variables as possible, so that the speech recognizing software will be able to do a better job.
In normalizing speech for computer recognition, microphone placement can be important. Ideally, room acoustic variations should be kept to a minimum. Although there are directional microphones available which can be used to minimize the effects of room acoustics, these microphones tend to be expensive and often times too large for the office environment. There has been some experimentation with placement of the microphone in the computer monitor or in a free-standing speaker enclosure. These solutions, however, require the operator to face the computer monitor or speaker while using them to input speech. Also, these solutions may require complex desensitizing and filtering circuitry in order to make them more immune to spurious room sounds and reverberations.
The present invention overcomes the shortcomings of existing microphone technology for speech input by integrating a small microphone within the pointing device or mouse. A great deal of convenience and functionality is obtained, since the user can readily pick up the mouse and speak directly into it, without the need to face in a particular direction or to worry about room acoustics. The microphone can be positioned in the underside of the mouse, where it will be unobstructed by the user's hand during use. To minimize false triggering a switch may be provided to mute the microphone when the mouse is in use as a pointing device.
For a more complete understanding of the invention, its objects and advantages, reference may be had to the following specification and to the accompanying drawings.